I interviewed Sam Raimi two weeks ago at the press day for OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL - which is [embargoed]! At the end of the interview, I asked if he was proud that Fede Alvarez's forthcoming remake of THE EVIL DEAD had encountered MPAA trouble (Alvarez's film had to be cut to get an R; Raimi's original was rated X). He was! From there, he gave me something of a canned answer, the kind he probably dished out to every other journalist who brought up THE EVIL DEAD that day. Still, I felt he was holding something back...

Well, if he was, he unleashed it today. At a "Meet the Filmmakers" event in London for OZ (h/t to BleedingCool), Raimi responded to an onslaught of EVIL DEAD questions thusly:

I would love to make EVIL DEAD 4. My brother and I plan to work on this script this summer.

Give me some sugar, baby.

Sam Raimi has never written a film with his brother Ted, so I'm guessing he'll be teaming with Ivan (who co-wrote ARMY OF DARKNESS, DARKMAN, SPIDER-MAN 3 and DRAG ME TO HELL). Either way, I ain't gonna lie: seeing as how Sam's at the height of his directorial powers right now (ahem), I would love to see him go nuts on one last EVIL DEAD movie. My guess is that he'll start with the post-apocalyptic Rip Van Winkle finale from the director's cut of ARMY OF DARKNESS, and proceed to abuse Bruce Campbell with impunity for the next ninety minutes.

I worship Raimi. EVIL DEAD 2 is one of my favorite movies. Let's do this.

GROOVY!!

But kind of weird that he has let this slip when the remake has yet to be released

Army of Darkness was released waaaaaaaay back in 1992...so it's already 21 years ago(I know,I know,how can it be that long???)...I hope it has not been too long though,and yeah sorry the video games didn't fill the gap for me,although still appreciated,and would still like a new game

What about the Evil Dead remake? You're involved with that as a producer, and fan anticipation is very high. Is it flattering to realize that this small film you made in 1981 still commands such a loyal following?

I don't look at it that way. Rather, I look at it as, "What a sorry state the world is in that it has come to this!" [Laughs.] The lowest-budget, B-movie, drive-in picture is elevated to this status? That's really how I look at it!

Really? I thought it was quite good. Did you stay for the after credits scene?

Yeah...it made me dislike the film even more. I'm a huge fan of the man, but that was just shameless pandering.

No one in the cast had any personality whatsoever, the story was just an excuse to torture characters minus any of the charm or frenetic fun of the original and the ending was so cliched it was like they just gave up. The only spark of originality in the film was how they used the main character's history of drug addiction as a way to explain why they didn't start running the moment things started to go south.

Standard disclaimer: these are purely my opinions.

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Unlike the recent AICN Bruce Campbell interview,the Den Of Geek Bruce Campbell interview asked him about what Raimi said last month

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Youíre still very much associated with your role in Evil Dead. What does the franchise mean to you?

Well, itís how I got into the film business, so it means a lot to me. We want fans to know that this remake isnít something we did lightly. Itís not something we planned all along; it kinda came out of nowhere, but we had a filmmaker, Fede Alvarez, who pitched a take on it that will allow him to make Evil Dead movies, and will allow us to make Evil Dead movies with the Ash character if we want to.

I was going to ask you about that: Sam Raimi has said that heís going to be writing a new Evil Dead movie this summerÖ

Yeah, thatís what heís threatening to do, but he says that a lot. It may happen! Who knows? If thereís enough of a resurgence of interest in Evil Dead then we may be able to make it.

So which ending are we going off?,i forgot which is supposed to be canon now

If its the one when he overslept(too many drops),it would be good going back to Ash,having had to of spent 20 years in that new hell/future/whatever and him being a grizzled old monster hunter or something

The ending where he oversleeps was never official. It was their original ending, but was changed before the movie was released because they felt it would come off as too bleak. AFAIK, it has never been integrated with the rest of the movie, instead only serving as bonus content on DVDs.

The ending where he oversleeps was never official. It was their original ending, but was changed before the movie was released because they felt it would come off as too bleak. AFAIK, it has never been integrated with the rest of the movie, instead only serving as bonus content on DVDs.

It was our 'official' ending here in the UK,we never got to see the Wal-Mart ending until some years later,never even heard about another ending until some years later in fact

My Army of Darkness DVD has two versions 'U.S. Theatrical Version' with the Wal-Mart ending and the 'Directors Cut' which is 15 minutes longer and also has the overslept ending,the Sam and Ivan Raimi and Bruce Campbell Audio Commentary is on the Directors Cut version of the film but no commentary on the U.S. Theatrical version

From the sleeve notes(from Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell) it says that the Directors cut was the closest thing to what Sam Raimi handed in to Universal and they didn't like it,they felt it was too long(which with 15 minutes extra is 96 minutes in all) and the ending was depressing

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"Universal's solution was to remove 15 minutes of footage and slap on a new "happy" ending.

Did it work? You decide...

Personally, I think there is always merit in any version of a film that preserves what the makers intended. So,for your consideration,we submit the REAL film,complete with the original ending,which i think is far more appropriate."

I was going to scan my DVD cover,but oh look its already on the internet

Pretty sure 'The Evil Dead 3' tag is new to this DVD(released in 2002),wasn't it billed as 'The Medieval Dead'?EDIT: Nope,just the UK again,LOL

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The title "Army of Darkness" came from an idea by Irvin Shapiro, during the production of Evil Dead II.[6] This was used after Sam Raimi was unable to use his original title "The Medieval Dead." ("The Medieval Dead" would later be used as the film's subtitle for its UK release as Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead).

In any case, I actually think the theatrical ending is better. Army of Darkness is much lighter in tone than the previous two movies, and this ending reinforces that. It's also got such memorable lines as "mam, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store".

In any case, I actually think the theatrical ending is better. Army of Darkness is much lighter in tone than the previous two movies, and this ending reinforces that. It's also got such memorable lines as "mam, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store".

yeah, the S-Mart ending was way better.

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In any case, I actually think the theatrical ending is better. Army of Darkness is much lighter in tone than the previous two movies, and this ending reinforces that. It's also got such memorable lines as "mam, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store".

yeah, the S-Mart ending was way better.

I actually liked the wake-up ending a lot more.

The S Mart ending was amusing (and had Bridget Fonda), so it wasn't terrible (and kudos to younger Raimi for not tanking the film because the studio had a different opinion), but that wake-up ending tied in with the series better and hinted at more possibilities. Plus, though the movies were amusing (2 and 3, anyway), they were never about happy endings. You got a good resolution. The bit where he wakes up in the future was more of an epilogue. In fact, if this had been made today, it could have been a post-credits sequence and would have worked great.

Yeah i liked the wake up ending better,but that could well be because I saw that version first,which is often the case with things i see and hear first(song covers,remade movies etc)

Also when i first saw the film in the early 90s,the wake up ending gave us hope for the next film....(ahem..and here we are 20 years later),like Bull says which got us talking a lot on how he would survive or if he could go back

I actually only saw the Wal-mart ending as TiLT said about the wake up ending,i saw it as an extra,or online

In any case, I actually think the theatrical ending is better. Army of Darkness is much lighter in tone than the previous two movies, and this ending reinforces that. It's also got such memorable lines as "mam, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store".

yeah, the S-Mart ending was way better.

I actually liked the wake-up ending a lot more.

The S Mart ending was amusing (and had Bridget Fonda), so it wasn't terrible (and kudos to younger Raimi for not tanking the film because the studio had a different opinion), but that wake-up ending tied in with the series better and hinted at more possibilities. Plus, though the movies were amusing (2 and 3, anyway), they were never about happy endings. You got a good resolution. The bit where he wakes up in the future was more of an epilogue. In fact, if this had been made today, it could have been a post-credits sequence and would have worked great.

I have to agree with TiLT, the lighter ending fit the film better. If the film had been made today they probably would have made it darker though, and then the post credit idea you had would fit.

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